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Policy issues concerning Bailout

A more comprehensive European approach to dealing with the region's debt crisis is needed to help Ireland regain access to debt markets, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday May 20, 2011. The IMF went on to say that Europe needed to address the risk of financial stress in its periphery through a more "comprehensive" plan.

While the texts produced by the Irish Government and the ECB/IMF/EU following the latter's review of Ireland's progress in implementing the Bailout agreement contained little information on changes or adjustments to the agreement, the latter's statement contained one blatent claim that seriously insults Ireland's poorest and most vulnerable people.

The insult to Ireland’s poor and vulnerable people originally perpetrated by EU Commissioner for Economic and Monitory Affairs, Mr Olli Rehn (when he refused to meet representatives of these groups during his recent visit to Ireland) has been repeated and worsened by the terms of the bailout agreement. The bailout programme proposes to target unemployed people while they make no provision for any new jobs that unemployed people could take up to exit unemployment.

Ireland's negotiations with the European Commission, the ECB and the IMF were concluded on Sunday, November 28, 2010. The bottom line is that Ireland's tax-payers, poor people and vulnerable people are to take the full impact of the 'hit' for bank losses.